RIC CHICAGO SKY

35th NATIONAL WOMEN’S WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

DENVER, COLORADO

Tournament Brackets

The RIC Sky went into the National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament seeded 5th based on their finish in last year's Nationals.  However, since that Nationals, they lost 4 women to the new women's team at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, one woman moved away from Chicago and one decided to take a year off to concentrate on school.  Because of this the Sky lost 3 of their starters and one of their "first off the bench" people from last season.  A new coach was leading the team this season.
 
The first game was played on Wednesday at 11:50 AM.  This game was against the Sky's perennial rivals, the Dallas Lady Mavericks who acquired the Sky's starting player that moved away from Chicago.  With the added firepower she brought to their team and the Sky's loss of her as a player, they won this game by a score of 59 to 36.  The next game that day was against the Steel City Starz which the Sky won easily 56 to 37.  The last game of the day versus the Shepherd Lady Stealers was scheduled to start at 9:45 PM.  However, after a long day of games scheduled every 1 1/2 hours, the last game actually started at 10:20.  It was an exciting nip and tuck game that was forced into overtime by a referee that had worked too many games in one day.  A Shepherd player was fouled as she received a pass and the game ending buzzer was sounding.  The referee called the foul as in the act of shooting and gave 2 free throws to the Shepherd player.  She made both baskets throwing the game into overtime.  With 8 seconds on the clock, Sue Haddick made a basket putting the Sky in the lead by one point.  However, RIC coach Dave Radbel had been calling for a timeout some seconds earlier and the referee had not been listening.  Finally he realized that he had heard a call for a timeout and whistled for the timeout and disallowed the basket.  The Sky protested the call to no avail.  With 8 seconds on the clock, there was time to toss the ball in but the Sky was not able to get a good position for the shot and lost the game 45 to 44.  The game was over at 11:30 and the very tired and disappointed Sky were set to play for seventh place at 10:00 AM the next day.  The Sky easily won the game versus the Denver Lady Nuggets 47 to 36.